Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Movie Monsters #3

I saw a post somewhere today that asked "when did you first see GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956)?" which got me thinking about that. I think I was at least 10or 11 by the time I saw the first movie, which was at least the 4th or 5th Godzilla movie I saw.

however, thanks to this magazine I knew the story of the movie, as they published it as a "filmbook" back in 1975. this magazine was published by the short-lived Atlas line of comics, designed to compete directly with Marvel Comics. I read several of the comics, but most of them never got past three issues. the monster magazine lasted four issues, and they were pretty good. this cover was especially memorable, since no Phantom of the Opera ever looked like this when the mask was removed!

So naturally I bought it because there was a bunch of pictures featuring Godzilla. the rest of the articles included a cool JACK THE GIANT KILLER one (with pre-production drawings) and one on THE FORBIDDEN PLANET. there was also a nice feature on the various Batmen that had been filmed, which was quite cool. I so wanted to see those old serials based on comic book superheroes. I wonder what my ten year old reaction to them would have been, since I was quite the comic book enthusiast back then and didn't like much deviation from the source material.

OK some things don't change. I'm a little easier going now.

I did wish that the article was more about Godzilla than an actual retelling of the movie. there were ten pictures, including one of his latest foe, the Smog Monster! what? there were at three more movies by April of 1975 (probably bought the magazine in Jan or Feb though). remember, it was the success of GODZILLA VS MEGALON in 1976 that enabled the GIGAN and the two MechaGodzilla movies to be released here, especially theatrically. I knew that there were at least three more Godzilla movies that had made but not released over here yet.

so this was my introduction to the first Godzilla movie. when I finally saw it I was surprised at how much I knew about the film, almost word for word.

the only thing that would have made this a better zine was having Godzilla on the cover. I read my copy to pieces, literally.